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Lakeview students construct garden

Teaches life skills and encourages responsibility

CORTLAND — Seventh- and eighth-grade students in Marissa DeFrancesco’s classes at Lakeview Middle School have spent the spring constructing an outdoor garden at their new PK-8 school.

DeFrancesco said students built the eight garden boxes, filled them with soil and then planted.

She said the project was made possible after she wrote and received a grant from the GPD Foundation of Akron.

“This allowed us to purchase the timber and hardware necessary to build eight different raised beds.We are saving part of the grant to purchase grow lights and other materials so that students next year can grow all of the plants from seed in the late winter / early spring,” DeFrancesco said.

To help with the project Home Depot in Niles donated the plants, gardening gloves for the students and trowels; Centerra Co-Op / Cortland Country Store donated soil; Cortland Rotary agreed to donate a storage shed; and Four Seasons Garden Club of Cortland donated herbs

DeFrancesco said a goal of the project was to include fresh / local produce in the Bulldog Pantry deliveries this summer, dry and use the herbs in the school cafeteria, use the produce that is harvested in the fall in school lunches, teach students life skills and about the plant life cycle, encourage responsibility and develop a rain water collection system.

For the 2019-2020 school year, students will harvest in the fall, prepare the garden for winter and grow plants from seeds.

news@tribtoday.com

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